St Francis De Sales School (Is.Bay)

Te Ara Huarau | School Profile Report 

Background 

This Profile Report was written with the Education Review Office and ​St Francis De Sales School (Is Bay)​ working in Te Ara Huarau, an improvement evaluation approach used in most English Medium State and State Integrated Schools. For more information about Te Ara Huarau see ERO’s website. www.ero.govt.nz 

Context  

St Francis De Sales School (Is Bay) is an integrated Catholic character school located in the southern Wellington suburb of Island Bay. It caters for students in Years 1 – 8. 

​​St Francis De Sales School (Is Bay)​’s strategic priorities for improving outcomes for learners are to: 

• implement, evaluate and further development of the St Francis De Sales localised curriculum to support student engagement, learning and success 
• experience and learn about te reo me ōna tikanga Māori 
• strengthen student understanding of and confidence to participate in Masses. 

You can find a copy of the school’s strategic and annual plan on ​St Francis De Sales School (Is Bay)​’s website. 

ERO and the school are working together to evaluate the effectiveness of new reporting processes to strengthen partnerships for learning between board, leaders, teachers, families and students.  

The rationale for selecting this evaluation is to: 

• capture student achievement more widely, and to share this in a timely manner  
• strengthen learning partnerships by supporting families to understand their children’s progress, achievement and next learning steps 
• enable the board to better inform resourcing and decision-making that supports student achievement. 

The school expects to see staff effectively using the school’s new management system to record student achievement, interests and to share successes and actions in real time. It also expects staff to use information to better plan for and implement learning programmes that support improved engagement, achievement and wellbeing of all students. 

Strengths  

The school can draw from the following strengths to support its goal for better reporting of student progress and achievement:  

• a recently reviewed local curriculum that has real purpose and provides clarity around desired student outcomes 
• strong support for students with additional needs and an inclusive school culture that assists these students to achieve 
• a caring and nurturing school culture where learners receive ongoing support to achieve, and wellbeing is valued. 

Where to next? 

Moving forward, the school will prioritise further development of:  

• timely and informed planning of programmes to support student success, including that of neuro-divergent students, and achievement in reading, writing and mathematics  
• staff skills to record and share student information to inform planning and to better share progress with whānau 
• whānau understanding of how their child’s achievement and progress will be more frequently shared and how they can support new learning 
• the board’s use and understanding of achievement information to support strategic planning, continuous monitoring of success and evaluation of learning support provisions. 

ERO’s role will be to support the school in its evaluation for improvement cycle to improve outcomes for all learners. ERO will support the school in reporting their progress to the community. The next public report on ERO’s website will be a Te Ara Huarau | School Evaluation Report and is due within three years.  

​​​​​Shelley Booysen​ 
​​Director of Schools​ 

​​3 July 2024​ 

About the School 

The Education Counts website provides further information about the school’s student population, student engagement and student achievement.  educationcounts.govt.nz/home